Trump Will Be ‘on Turbo’ Mode for 2nd Term: Speaker Johnson

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 15, 2024. (Right) Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Fox News town hall in Greenville, S.C., on Feb. 20, 2024. Kevin Dietsch, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said a second Trump administration will be like the first, but “on turbo” mode.

Former President Donald Trump “learned a lot of painful lessons in his first term,” Mr. Johnson said in a March 15 interview with The New Yorker. This included realizing there were those within government agencies “working against him.” Once President Trump gets back to office, his second term will be similar to the first one but “on turbo,” he said. “I think we are going to be right off to the races.”

Mr. Johnson was elected as the House Speaker last year after former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was booted from the post. In the interview, Mr. Johnson told the publication that he “considered himself the first genuinely ‘pro-Trump’ Republican leader in Congress.”

The House Speaker stressed that he supports President Trump due to his policies. “What we accomplished in those first two years of his Presidency is amazing.” During that time, he said, the United States had the “greatest economy in the history of the world.”

A second Trump term may prioritize cutting taxes, increasing Chinese tariffs, taking real action against illegal immigration, and removing blocks on oil and gas drilling activities, he said. In addition, a “major theme” of the new administration would be to strip government agencies of their regulatory power.

By doing so, the Republican administration will be “restoring the constitutional authority of Congress as a co-equal third branch.”

With President Trump and President Biden set to clash once again after the 2020 elections, Mr. Johnson feels the GOP candidate has an advantage in the rematch as voters can now compare the performance of both candidates.

“The race is set. Now it will be a rematch, and we like that rematch,” Mr. Johnson told reporters earlier this month.

During his first term, President Trump faced “resistance” and “headwinds” as he tried to figure out why some of the federal agencies were not implementing his agenda, and in some cases even acting against it, Mr. Johnson stated.

With the benefit of this experience, President Trump now has “big plans” to overcome some of the leadership challenges he faced last time, with congressional Republicans poised to play a “big part” in these plans.

“House Republicans are going to work hand in hand with the new president, the 47th president, which we’re convinced will be President Donald Trump,” he said.

Trump’s Plans

President Trump has promised his supporters to implement some big changes once he is back in the White House. During a Fox News town hall in January, the 45th president outlined the steps he will take against illegal immigration.

“We are going to have the largest deportation effort in the history of our country,” he said. “We are bringing everybody back to where they came from. We have no choice.” Having millions of illegal aliens in the United States is “not sustainable” for the country, he added.

He criticized the Biden administration for the ongoing border crisis and vowed to “finish the wall” at the southern border he started during his first term that was halted by his successor. “We have the worst border in history,” President Trump said.

President Trump is planning to crack down hard on crime, and even hinted at possibly involving the military. Back in September, he told a rally in California, “Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store.”

The former president wants to eliminate the Department of Education, transferring the authority from the federal government to the states.

In a March 12 post on Truth Social, President Trump said that his first acts as president “will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!”

According to a March 11 update from Morning Consult, President Trump has a single percentage point lead over President Biden among likely voters of the 2024 election, as well as a single percentage point lead among Independents.

President Biden and President Trump officially secured their party nominations for the 2024 presidential race last week.

“I believe that the American people will choose to keep us moving into the future,” President Biden said after his nomination. “With every crisis, America has always emerged stronger and more united on the other side. This November will be no different—and I believe we will do it together.”

President Trump acknowledged his nomination in a video posted on X, highlighting the challenges facing the United States and the need to win the upcoming election.

“We now have to go into victory because our country is in serious trouble,“ he said. ”We have millions and millions of people flowing in. We have no respect on the world stage. What we say doesn’t mean a thing anymore. And to have that happen is unthinkable. We have an economy that, outside of certain little areas, is doing very poorly … We have United States military that has to be taken care of.”

“We have to get back to work because we have the worst president in the history of our country. His name is Joe Biden, sometimes referred to as crooked Joe Biden, and he must be defeated. Our nation is failing. We’re a nation that is in serious decline. We’ve never had a situation like this.”